Archaeology Notes

Event ID 674072

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/674072

NM62SW 1 61678 24753.

(NM 6168 2474) Moy Castle (NR)

OS 1:10000 map (1976)

Moy Castle stands on a low rock platform at the head of Loch Buie. The castle is a modest-sized tower-house formerly incorporating a small enclosure or barmkin on the SE side. Much of the surviving fabric of the tower can be ascribed to the first half of the 15th century. Some alterations and additions, confined mainly to the upper works of the tower, were carried out about the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, and the castle was finally abandoned as a domestic residence about 1752. It is now derelict and roofless, but the walls, although in need of repair, survive virtually complete to the height of the parapet and gables.

The lack of natural defences on the landward approaches to the site was made good to some extent by the construction of a shallow rock-cut ditch on the NW and by the erection of a wall enclosing an area to the SE of the tower. The rubble core of a section of this barmkin wall can still be seen in places, as shown on plan.

About 8m to the SE of the tower-house there is a rectangular building of comparatively recent date, having a wide entrance facing seaward; this was probably used as a boat-shelter.

RCAHMS 1980, visited 1972

The castle is as described.

Revised at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (DWR) 23 May 1972.